Plastic Welding with Lasers

Using Beam Steered Laser Technology

Control Micro System's plastic welding systems using lasers bring together modern laser technology with engineered parts handling to provide you with proven plastic laser welding systems. The reliable systems that Control Micro Systems manufactures for laser welding thermoplastics will provide an economical means of joining your thermoplastics.

Plastic laser welding is the subject of much interest in the plastic welding industry. Welding of thermoplastic materials and welding of low-melting-point plastics is easily achieved with lasers. Because of the superb controlability of lasers, heat can be applied exactly where it needs to be.

The ability to utilize transmission welding for plastics:

Helps eliminate heat related material stress

Easily automated

Highly flexible

Invisible joints

High weld speeds

Hermetically sealed

Virtually maintenance free

Very compact laser sources

High weld quality and reproducibility

Only the weld area is heated with no damage to other components

Thermoplastics under certain conditions and in certain configurations can be welded with a laser. The ideal configuration for laser welding of plastics is an overlap between a layer that is transparent to the laser and a layer that absorbs the laser. The laser beam penetrates the upper layer and is absorbed by the lower layer at the point where the layers meet, warming the lower layer to a melting temperature but not to a disintegration temperature. If the mechanical contact is sufficient, the heat is transmitted from the absorbent layer to the non-absorbent layer, which also melts, assuming the melting points of both layers to be comparable. Under sufficient pressure (to preserve the close contact) the molten zones mingle, and thus form a reliable connection when cooled down.

Feasibility studies are done in our state of the art Applications Lab. Our lab utilizes various lasers and optical configurations to optimize your welding application.